The Civil War Round Table of New York, Inc.

Volume 66, No. 1 602nd Meeting September 2016

2016 • MEETING SCHEDULE • 2016• October 19th •Martha Hodes

Mourning Lincoln

• November 9th •Peter Cozzens

West Point Offi cers After the Civil War

• December 14th •John F. Marszalek

Sherman’s March Through Georgia and Carolina

You must call 718-341-9811 by September 1st if you plan to attend the September meeting. We need to know how many people to order food for.

• Guest: Jamie MalanowskiCommander Will Cushing: Daredevil Hero of the Civil War

• Cost: Members: $50Non-Members: $60• Date: NOTE NEW DATEWednesday, September 7th

• Place: The Three West Club, 3 West 51st Street

• Time: Dinner at 6:00 pm, Doors open 5:30 pm, Cash Bar 5:30 – 7 pm

Jamie MalanowskiCommander Will Cushing: Daredevil Hero of the Civil War

Our September guest is a writer and editor. A member of the original staff of Spy, Jamie has also been an editor of Time, Esquire and Playboy, where he was managing editor. He has written for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and the N.Y. Times, where he was the lead writer for Disunion, the award-winning series about the Civil War. His latest work, the biography Commander Will Cushing, Daredevil Hero of the Civil War was published by W.W.Norton in October 2014. He also the author of And The War Came, a history of the six months that preceded the start of the Civil War.

James Pollock. Who?Look at your coins and money. On all these items you will fi nd the words “In GOD WE TRUST.” We can attribute these words being placed on our currency to Mr. James Pollock. In fact, April 22, 2016 was the 152nd anniversary of the Act of Congress which placed this motto on our specie, starting with the one-cent coin. Later it was placed on all coins and paper money.James Pollock (1810-1890) hailed from Milton. Pennsylvania, and attended Princeton University. He served as a lawyer and district attorney in his home state until 1838. From 1844 to 1849, he was a U.S. Congressman, and for a while roomed at Mrs. Spriggs boardinghouse in Washington, D.C. at the same time that Congressman Abraham Lincoln resided there.From 1855 to 1858 he served as the governor of Pennsylvania and in 1861 he was appointed Director of the Mint by President Lincoln. Tasked with creating and gaining Congressional approval to recognize the Deity on U. S. money, he originated the

motto “IN GOD WE TRUST.” As mentioned before, by an act of Congress on April 22, 1864, the motto was placed on the one-cent coin. In 1956, it became the offi cial national motto.Excerpted from The Surratt Society CourierBy Joan Chaconas

DRESS CODELadies and gentlemen: PLEASENo sneakers, no jeans, no tee shirts. Gentlemen, please wear a collared shirt. Let’s dress like we are attending a business meeting.Thanks, The Management

2

President’s Message

Founded January 24, 1951

The Dispatch is published monthly, except July and August, by

The Civil War Round Table of New York, Inc.,

139-33 250th Street, Rosedale, N.Y. 11422

Telephone CWRT/NY at (718) 341-9811

During business hours.

OFFICERS President Paul Weiss V.P. Programs Michael Connors V.P. Operations Joan McDonough Secretary Pat Holohan Treasurer Bud Livingston

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Term Expiring 2017 Dan McCarthy Kris Kasnicki

Term Expiring 2018 Beth Connors Martin Smith

Term Expiring 2019 William Finlayson Judith Hallock

Editor E.A. (Bud) Livingston Copy Editor/ Club Liaison Joan McDonough P.R. Martin Smith Merchandise Paul Weiss

Email: cwrtnyc1@gmail.comWebsite: http://www.cwrtnyc.org

On behalf of the officers and board members of your Civil War Round Table, Welcome back!

As always, we will do our best to bring you the finest available after-dinner speakers to expound on our favorite topic, the American Civil War (or, as those very official “Official Records”(ORs) refer to it, “The War of the Rebellion”).

Moving from our very successful 65th into what we plan to be an equally successful 66th year, we will continue to honor our tradition of presenting the prestigious Fletcher Pratt Award to the best non-fiction Civil War book of the year (if you recall, Dr. James McPherson was last years’ honoree!), the Barondess-Lincoln Award for the best Lincoln related work, along with the special speakers we will have for West Point Night (November 9), and Lee-Jackson Night (January 11).

Our goal, as it has been since the New York Round Table was founded in 1951, is to “promote the social, educational, literary, and other historically related activities . . . of the people and events associated with the American Civil War.”

PLEASE NOTE: This Fall, due to circumstances beyond our control, the meeting dates for September and October have been changed from the usual second Wednesday of the month to: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, and WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19. Please mark (or update) your calendar appropriately. The remainder of our meetings will be held on the regular date.

Whatever the date, please come and join us at the beautiful 3 West Club for good food, convivial company, and the most knowledgeable and eloquent Civil War authors and speakers in the business.

See You in September (the 7th)!

Paul Weiss

Dues are dueIf you haven’t already paid your dues, please send your checks in now. After October, the price rises to $60. If we don’t hear from you by January 1, we will be obliged to drop your name from our mailing lists. Sorry about that.We now have three yearly dues categories: Individual FamilyBasic $60 $80Silver $70 $95Gold $120 $170Out of Town $25 $35 (75 miles or more)Student $25New members please add $10 initiation feeYou may choose any appropriate amount to send in, but it will be greatly appreciated if you are able to remit the amounts in the second or third categories.Send dues to Treasurer Bud Livingston 616 South Orange Ave. Apt. 6G, Maplewood, NJ 07040Do not include your dues and dinner payment on the same check.

September 1862Meanwhile, President Lincoln was under two great pressures.On his desk was a paper which undertook to proclaim freedom for Negro slaves - a document which would transform the war and change the future course of American history, if it ever got out, but would only be a piece of paper unless the Federal Army speedily won a victory; and Lee was north of the Potomac with an army that had never been beaten and was beginning to look unbeatable, moving northwest across Maryland, bent on nothing less than the destruction of the Army of the Potomac.Lee had raised his sights. He had written to Mr. Davis to say that at the least his move into Maryland would get the war out of Virginia and provide a breathing space, but as he moved he was thinking in terms of an all-out offensive. (Lee had this hallmark of a great soldier; if he had the slightest warrant for doing so he planned in terms of complete victory.) He had received reinforcements which slightly more than made up for the 9000 men he had lost at Bull Run, and he crossed the Potomac near Leesburg on September 5, moved up to the town of Frederick, Maryland, and planned a new maneuver. Off to his left and rear, posted where it could interrupt his communications with Virginia, was a detachment of 10,000 Federals at Harper’s Ferry. Lee proposed to move his army beyond the sheltering screen of South Mountain – that long extension of the Blue Ridge which runs northeast from Harper’s Ferry into Pennsylvania – and send Jackson down to capture this annoying outpost. Then he would reassemble his army, seek out McClellan, bring him to battle and defeat him.Once again he would be taking a long chance. His army was weaker now than at any other time in the war until the final, doomed retreat to Appomattox. It was worn-out, thousands of men had no shoes, other thousands considered that they had enlisted to defend the South and not to invade the North, and Lee had temporarily lost more men by straggling than he had recently lost in battle; all in all, when the time for fighting

came, he would have fewer than 50,000 men of all arms. McClellan, who was slowly moving toward him, might have twice that many, certainly would outnumber him heavily, and the Federals would be much better equipped and supplied. To divide the army in the presence of the enemy was the greatest of risks; it had worked against Pope – would it work against McClellan?Lee believed it would. He had supreme confidence in himself and his soldiers, he knew that McClellan always moved slowly, and he believed that McClellan’s army was more or less demoralized. After the war he told a friend that “I had intended then to attack McClellan, hoping the best results from the state of my troops and those of the enemy,” and another post-war interviewer wrote that Lee said that if he could have kept the Federals in the dark about his own movements for a few days longer” he did not doubt then (nor has he changed his opinion since) that he could have crushed the army of McClellan. Once more Lee was risking everything in order to win everything.It might have worked; it is hard to dispute the measured judgment of Robert E. Lee. But no one will ever know about this particular might-have-been; because as the army left Frederick, bound for the sheltering rampart of South Mountain, one of Lee’s officers lost the order which set forth all of the movements which Lee’s army was going to make, and on the evening of September 13, that order was presented to General McClellan. Now McClellan had the game in his hands.From Terrible Swift Sword by Bruce Catton

3August/September During the Civil War

1861 August 10 – At Wilson’s Creek, Franz Sigel’s retrograde

action (retreat) leaves Nathaniel Lyon in the lurch. Soon he will be in the grave.

September 3 – With infinite wisdom, Leonidas Polk orders Gideon Pillow to enter Kentucky, causing a transformation in the state from neutrality to Unionization.

1862 August 20 – The “miscreant” Pope orders Fitz-John Porter

to attack which he does not do. Did he drag his feet disobeying orders or had Longstreet come up and outnumbered him? The jury is still out.

September 2 – President Lincoln writes, “In great conflicts each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, but one must be, wrong. God can not be for and against the same thing at the same time.”

1863 August 8 – General R.E.Lee offers to resign as commander of

the Army of Northern Virginia. President Jefferson Davis says, “ Are you nuts? Who could possibly take your place?”

September 20 – Snodgrass Hill and the making of a nom de guerre concerning George Craig’s favorite general and a rock.

1864 August 21 – N.B.Forrest occupies part of Memphis for a while

nearly capturing Federal Generals Hurlbut and Washburn. The Wizard of the Saddle thwarts all Union attempts to neutralize him and he continues his attacks on Sherman’s supply lines.

September 7 – Pen pals Sherman and Hood have a lively correspondence concerning the forced evacuation of Atlanta citizens from their homes. War is indeed Hell in this neck of the woods in Georgia.

NEW RecruitsMichael Falco, a friend of Terry Brown, who has intense interest in our favorite war.

A Tribute to a Past Member of the CWRTNYFor those who may have missed the June 19th Metropolitan section of the NY Times, there was an article on the 4,223 benches in Central Park with stories to tell. One tale was dedicated to Marie Roth Reno, who served for some time as our secretary. Her book, When the Music Changed, told a vibrant story of Civil War New York, complete with a very scary Draft Riot.

Marie had served as a volunteer guide in Central Park for many years so her “bench” has this message: New York was her fi rst love Central Park was her passion.Several years ago your editor spent a winter in Florida. The delivery of the New York Times down there does not include the Metropolitan section. And that is where a brief review of a book called Brooklyn and the Civil War appeared, somthing I missed until Pat Falci told me about it.

Possible Quotations George McClellan speaking to Allen Pinkerton:“I told you a million times not to exaggerate.”Jubal Early“I’ve had my fi ll of Sheridan.”George Pickett“Suh, that’s right. That line of troops that goes ahead of the army was named after me.”James Ewell Brown Stuart“Few people know this but I got my nick name from that guy who ran for president.”Spectators after the Lincoln Conspiracy trial:“What was the name of that Doctor who is being sent to Dry Tortugas?” “His name is Mudd”

59th Annual Battlefi eld TourJoin Us As We Continue Down The “Bloody Roads South” For…Grant’s Overland Campaign 1864 — Part 2!Friday to Sunday…October 14-16, 2016This year the Round Table will continue to travel the same roads South to NORTH ANNA, COLD HARBOR and PETERSBURG with the already battered, bruised and bloodied armies of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee after their colossal struggle in The Wilderness and Spotsylvania. This year’s Tour Guides BOB KRICK from the Richmond National Battlefi eld

and CHRIS BRYCE from the Petersburg National Battlefi eld will complete the dramatic story of Grant’s Overland Campaign and dig deeply into the offensive strategy and defensive tactics of its heroic commanders.To Reserve Your Place:Send your $100 check (made out to “CWRTNY Tour”) and your complete contact information with your phone number, cell phone and email address to: Martin Smith/CWRTNY Tour, 158 West 81 Street #24, New York, NY 10024.